A 94 MW-class photovoltaic power plant in Yeongam, the nation’s largest-ever one, built by LS ELECTRIC in July. (Photo: LS ELECTRIC)

In his New Year’s message, LS Group Chairman Christopher Koo said, “A mid- and long-term master plan to secure a digital operation regime should be established on the basis of winning successive orders in mainstay businesses such as undersea cables for wind power, photovoltaic power and energy storage system (ESS), and differentiation products and services need to be offered to customers by capitalizing on top capacity and technology.”

As the Korean government’s “Korean New Deal” policies are expected to boost the digital and green infrastructure sectors, LS Group is priming a digital transformation for its R&D and future strategies.

The group is devoting itself to becoming a digital and eco-friendly company by combining the conventional manufacturing field as well as AI, big data and smart energy technologies.

In January 2019, LS Corp., the holding company of LS Group, inaugurated the Future Innovation Team.

As LS Mtron Chairman Koo Ja-eun has joined forces, LS is pushing ahead with the execution of digital transformation, its key future strategy, centering around the creation of synergetic effects among subsidiaries and manpower development.

As countries around the world are scrambling for the development of eco-friendly energy wind power complexes, the global undersea cable market is on the rise.

In this vein, LS Cable & Systems (LS C&S) has succeeded in winning orders undersea cable projects related to wind power farms worth a combined 700 billion won from Taiwan, the United States and the Netherlands so far this year since last year.

As the expansion of wind power farms and underground power line projects, part of the government’s Korean New Deal, have been related to LS C&S’s businesses, LS C&S is poised to establish itself as a Korean and global cable solution leader.

LS C&S developed photovoltaic power cable in May and obtained an international standard certification from Germany’s TUV SUD, a global certification authority. The cable solution provider plans to cope with the expansion of the new/renewal energy market.

LS ELECTRIC is stepping on the gas to implement the next-generation micro-grid business for power self-sufficiency in small areas by capitalizing on the technology power the company has accumulated in power and automation segments and convergence smart solutions employing ICT.

LS ELECTRIC has an impressive track record of green energy business projects in Korea and abroad.

They included mega photovoltaic power farmed connected with ESS like ones in Hokkaido, Japan, and other areas abroad as well as a 94MW solar plant in Yeongam with the biggest-ever capacity in Korea, now in commercial operation.

LS ELECTRIC proved its technology power in an area of preserving energy and expanding new/renewal energy by building the world’s biggest DC energy self-sufficiency power grid at Seogeocha Island in Jeollanam-do.

Of late, LS ELECTRIC and Microsoft Korea struck an MOU on R&D collaboration in smart factory and digital transformation using AI and cloud to collaborate on research to upgrade smart factory technologies. 

In August, LS ELECTRIC teamed up with Doosan Fuel Cell, Hanwha Power System and Hanwha Asset Management to develop fuel-cell business models using unused energy from city gas facilities.

LS-Nikko Copper is implementing “Onsan Digital Smelter, (ODS),” a smart factory to optimize the operation of the Onsan smelting plant through automation of all processes related to the production of the plant.

Onsan smelting plant, with the world’s second biggest production capacity, aims to become the world’s first smelter in the world, boasting not only production efficiency and souped-up safety, but also environmental protection.

The ODS is expected to be a future growth engine not only for LS-Nikko Copper but also LS Group. LS Mtron is accelerating efforts to tap the “smart farm market” by developing remotely controlled tractors.

E1, specializing in the distribution of eco-friendly LPG, inaugurated a “new/renewal energy power generation business team” in January.

E1 is making every effort to ramp up the new/renewal energy business as a power generator as the company dedicated an 8MW photovoltaic power farm in Jeongseon, Gangwon-do, in June.

 
An LS Group official said the business group is dramatically ramping up digital capabilities by allowing the conventional manufacturing business areas to employ automation, big data, and AI technologies.

Its mainstay businesses’ digital transformation and superb technology power they have accumulated in the green energy sector are expected to contribute to Korea’s economic revival, the official added.